Academics take legal action against Queensland university

Two senior academics, suspended from their jobs at Queensland University of Technology after publicly hitting out at a research project called 'Laughing at the Disabled', are taking legal action.

Transcript

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KERRY O'BRIEN: The controversial Queensland research project originally titled Laughing at the Disabled has sparked a bitter worldwide debate over whether it's humour or tasteless exploitation. The Queensland University of Technology student who's been filming the comedy series featuring two disabled men, says he's trying to push the boundaries and show the public that the disabled can be engaging and funny.

But two senior academics who publicly hit out at the project have been suspended from their jobs for six months. They're now taking legal action against the university and their wages have been reinstated pending a court hearing later this year. Genevieve Hussey reports.

(Excerpt from Unlikely Travellers)

DARREN: Excellent, I can't wait to go on a big plane and go to Egypt.

JAMES: It'll be a new experience, experience a new country, first time overseas.

(End excerpt)

GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: These two men are hardly your usual television stars. Twenty-year-old James and 40-year-old Darren play starring roles in a documentary called Unlikely Travellers that follows their journey to Egypt. Both men have mental disabilities and we've been asked not to use their last names to protect their privacy.

DARREN: I forget all about the camera and I do my own thing. Yeah, really good, and I love it. Everything hit me. I'm pumped!

GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: The series was the brainchild of filmmaker and Queensland University of Technology PhD student, Michael Noonan.

MICHAEL NOONAN, FILM MAKER: They are funny guys and they know they're funny. They create their own comedy. They're aware of what they were doing.

GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: He was so impressed with Darren and James's comic potential he decided to use them in a second project, a comedy series.

DARREN: Really excellent and I didn't believe at first. I thought, "Oh, wow".

DEBBIE, JAMES' MOTHER: The whole thing was just refreshing for us. It was just... People taking an interest in our son and wanting to do something with them, something he was very willing to do.

GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: But, this second project has set off a bitter debate. The comedy series is the key to Michael Noonan's PhD thesis which was controversially titled, Laughing at the Disabled.

MICHAEL NOONAN: It is a confronting title. That was deliberately so. It was really that we are trying to explore the line between "at" and "with".

JOHN HOOKHAM, SENIOR LECTURER, QUT: The intention is to exploit and offend and take people who are cognitively impaired and put them in situations in which they can only appear to be inept.

GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: Earlier this year the university staged a seminar to confirm whether the project should go ahead. Michael Noonan showed 40 minutes of unedited video from this latest work. Lecturers Gary McLennan and John Hookham were appalled by what they saw.

GARY MCLENNAN, SENOR LECTURER, QUT: He asked the intellectually impaired man and autistic man what would they do if a girl fancied them both. The young autistic man, his face begins to twitch. It twitches for quite a long time. Beside me, academics were laughing at them.

JOHN HOOKHAM: It's a question of a full understanding and full comprehension of the situation in which they are in and clearly in this particular situation they did not have full comprehension of all the details at all.

GARY MCLENNAN: Hold the disabled in your heart. Do not... never be seduced into mocking or ridiculing them.

GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: That seminar sparked a huge furore with the film becoming the subject of angry debate worldwide. The controversy has been intense, but Michael Noonan won't show the video that's at the centre of it all.

MICHAEL NOONAN: Well, the parents have seen it and the two men themselves have seen it and they all love it and have been very supportive. They don't think there's anything wrong with the footage. It's a great show. I feel strongly about it.

GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: Why don't you want people to see it?

MICHAEL NOONAN: It's unfinished and as I said, taking it out of context is... for me to show it would require an explanation really of the journey to that point.

DEBBIE, JAMES' MOTHER: I thought it was amusing. I thought it was wonderful and very much part of my son. It's a side of my son that we often see. I think he enjoyed every minute of it.

(Footage courtesy Adrian Strong)

PROTESTORS: Don't laugh at disability.

(End footage)

GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: Dr John Hookham and Gary McLennan complained to the Queensland the University of Technology about the ethics of the project. When their concerns were rejected, they went public in the media. They were found to have breached QUT's code of conduct and suspended for six months without pay.

GARY MCLENNAN: It's been terrible. I've been working at QUT for over 30 years. And this has been a great shame, that this should happen.

PROTESTOR: We have worked so hard to get to where we are...

GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: The suspension sparked angry protests from university students and people with disabilities who labelled the punishment extreme.

ADRIAN STRONG, DOCUMENTARY STUDENT: It's been a gross overreaction by the university to what has happened. I think there are certainly implications for freedom of speech.

(Excerpt, Unlikely Travellers)

I'm going now.

(End excerpt)

But Darren is upset that some don't want the new filming to go ahead.

DARREN: I'm funny, because, God made me like that. If I'm funny and they laugh at me, that's good because that's good medicine.

MICHAEL NOONAN: And he's aware of his predicament at times and there's times when he invites me into laugh and to be complicit into the laughter with me in his comedy and he enjoys it.

GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: Disability support group, Queensland Advocacy support group Queensland Advocacy says it has serious concerns about the level of scrutiny that's been applied.

KEVIN COCKS, QUEENSLAND ADVOCACY INCORPORATED: Yes, we all probably like our 15 minutes of fame. The broader concern is what is the message that it's sending to the general community?

GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: Dr Gary McLennan and John Hookham are now taking legal action against the university over their suspensions. Their wages have been reinstated pending a hearing later this year. The university has issued a statement defending the disciplinary actions, claiming "they are within the measure available for the code for such breaches and a review found of the ethical approval process for Michael Noonan's project found no evidence of harm, discomfort, ridicule or exploitation to the participants".

GARY MCLENNAN: Michael Noonan talks about empowerment. At the seminar next year he was talking about offensiveness. The rhetoric has changed. We are very worried that the practice will go back to the same old practice of laughing at the disabled, that's an ancient practice. All they've added is the digital technology.

GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: While Unlikely Travellers will air on the ABC next year, Michael Noonan's latest more controversial project probably won't be finished for at least another two years.

MICHAEL NOONAN: I think the majority of people will see the show and the work for what it is, which is treating people with disabilities as three dimensional people.

DEBBIE: It's been like a breath of fresh air in our lives. I've seen the happiness they've brought to our child. From the bottom of my heart, I'm so grateful that this has happened for him.

KERRY O'BRIEN: I should point out that Michael Noonan's PhD project was given ethics approval for QUT under the alternate title Laughing with the Disabled.